Flash companiesa venture capital firm in the bitcoin space, launched Thunder financiera regulatory crowdfunding (Reg CF) portal, at the bitcoin 2024 conference last week. The platform aims to democratize early-stage investment in bitcoin and open-source startups by allowing both accredited and non-accredited investors to participate.
Thunder Funder leverages the Reg CF framework, which allows companies to raise up to $5 million annually from the public. For the first time, this opens up investment opportunities in startups that were largely inaccessible to retail investors interested in the booming bitcoin and open source sectors.
Lightning Ventures has invested over $6.8 million in nearly 40 bitcoin companies. With this new platform, “we are activating a new group of retail investors,” said Mike Jarmuz, CEO of Thunder Funder.
The founding team consists of CTO Uncle Rockstar, one of the early contributors to BTCPay Server, and COO Vivek Patel, who previously worked at PrimeTrust.
Swan bitcoin CEO Cory Klippsten’s Max Keiser and El Zonte Capital invested in Lightning Ventures’ $500,000 pre-seed round to launch the platform alongside Brad Mills and Chris Hunter.
With Thunder financierRegular investors can now directly fund innovative bitcoin projects that were previously only accessible to accredited and institutional investors. This could accelerate development and progress in the bitcoin and open source ecosystem.